The present invention relates to a method and system for analyzing call specific data records for traffic between different carriers"" portions of a telecommunication network, in order to reconcile accounting information regarding such traffic and/or to identify significant traffic patterns for engineering purposes.
Acronyms
The written description uses a large number of acronyms to refer to various services, messages and system components. Although generally known, use of several of these acronyms is not strictly standardized in the art. For purposes of this discussion, acronyms therefore will be defined as follows:
Address Complete Message (ACM)
Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL)
ANswer Message (ANM)
Automatic Message Accounting (AMA)
Call Detail Record (CDR)
Calling Party Number (CPN).
Carrier Identification Code (CIC)
Centi-Call Second (CCS)
Central Office (CO)
Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC)
Common Channel Interoffice Signaling (CCIS)
Common Language Location Identifier (CLLI)
Customer Record Information System (CRIS)
Destination Point Code (DPC)
End Office (EO)
Global Title Translation (GTT)
Initial Address Message (IAM)
Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN)
ISDN User Part (ISDN-UP or ISUP)
Inter-exchange Carrier (IXC)
Internet Service Provider (ISP)
Landing Zone (LZ)
Line Identification DataBase (LIDB)
Local Area Network (LAN)
Local Exchange Carrier (LEC)
Local Access and Transport Area (LATA)
Loop Maintenance Operations Systems (LMOS)
Message Signaling Unit (MSU)
Message Transfer Part (MTP)
Multi-Dimensional DataBase (MDDB)
Numbering Plan Area (NPA)
Online Analytical Processing (OLAP)
Origination Point Code (OPC)
Operations, Maintenance Application Part (OMAP)
Percent of Inter-LATA Usage (PIU)
Percent of Local Usage (PLU)
Personal Computer (PC)
Public Switching Telephone Network (PSTN)
Release Complete Message (RLC)
Release Message (REL)
Service Switching Point (SSP)
Signaling Link Selection code (SLC)
Signaling System 7 (SS7)
Signaling Point (SP)
Signaling Transfer Point (STP)
Structured Query Language (SQL)
Transaction Capabilities Applications Part (TCAP)
Wide Area Network (WAN)
Recent legislative and regulatory changes have created a more open service provider environment in the telecommunications industry. In this new environment, more and more companies are offering local exchange services as competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs), that is to say, entering the local market in direct competition with the Regional Bell Operating Company (RBOC) or independent company serving as the incumbent local exchange carrier (LEC).
A CLEC may lease certain unbundled elements of the LEC""s network at reduced rates for resale. For example, the CLEC may lease an unbundled port on an end office switch, as a point of access to the LEC""s switch and the subscriber loops. The CLEC then connects its own switch network to the unbundled port. Alternatively, the CLEC may operate its own independent switching facilities and loop plant. In either case, the regulatory requirements mandate that the CLEC facilities must be integrated into the public switching telephone network (PSTN) in a seamless manner from the customer""s perspective. As such, the customers must be able to make and receive telephone calls using existing dialing patterns, without any apparent distinction in processing as a result of service through the CLEC. The regulatory environment therefore places certain burdens on the incumbent LEC, to provide an efficient interconnection to the CLEC""s facilities and to provide mechanisms for compensation between the parties for calls interconnected between the two carriers"" networks.
Interconnect Traffic is generally defined as any calls which are routed and xe2x80x9chanded-offxe2x80x9d from one carrier to another. This may take the form of Independent, Interexchange Carrier, or Cellular service providers directing traffic to or receiving traffic from a local switch of the LEC. Typically, the LEC must provide tandem capacity and trunking to one or more exchanges of any of these other carriers, including the CLECs, to carry the interconnect traffic between the carriers"" networks. In particular, the CLECs demand that the LEC provide sufficient capacity to minimize blockages on calls to and from the CLEC networks.
Also, disputes arise over the amount and direction of such traffic, for example, as it relates to billing and compensation issues. Network interconnection, required under Section 251(c)(2) of the Telecommunications Act, requires that charges for the transport and termination of traffic provide for the mutual and reciprocal recovery by each carrier of its costs associated with transport and termination. As part of the compensation process, each party declares jurisdictional calling factors for the traffic, such as the Percent of Inter-LATA Usage (PIU) and the Percent of Local Usage (PLU), in an attempt to separate the billing of the reciprocal compensation charges for local traffic from the switched access charges for non-local traffic. The issues and problems associated with reciprocal compensation payments and PLU/PIU factoring are growing, as traffic volumes increase.
For this compensation system, one local carrier pays a charge to the other local carrier for each call originating in the one carrier""s network and terminated in the other carrier""s network. Reciprocal charges are accumulated for terminations in both directions and offset each other. The carrier originating more calls into the other carrier""s network pays the terminating carrier the difference in the charges.
Incumbent local service providers today are in an unfortunate position where they are unable to effectively measure usage or quality of service to CLECs and consequently cannot validate the associated terminating charges. Any inaccuracies in the CLEC""s declaration of the jurisdictional calling factors results in a significant increase in the incumbent LEC""s expense associated with CLEC interconnection.
The theory underlying this portion of the Act is that the accurately reported traffic should be substantially equal in both directions, from the LEC to the CLEC and from the CLEC to the LEC, therefore typically any reciprocal compensation between the carriers should be relatively low. This theory assumes that the CLEC customers are predominantly normal telephone customers, who make about as many calls as they receive and the CLECs accurately report jurisdictional factors.
Adding end offices, specialized switching modules, trunks, tandem offices and the like to meet new demands such as those of CLEC interconnection requires considerable expense. Accurate engineering, to minimize cost and yet provide effective service to the various customers, becomes ever more essential. To provide effective engineering, it is necessary that the LEC understand the traffic involved. Such understanding requires accurate and complete traffic measurement. Accurate information also is necessary to resolve disputes, for example with the CLECs over compensation, service quality and the like.
Today, there is no easy way to accurately measure traffic between two carriers"" networks, for example, so as to accurately identify the true point of origin for each call terminated within a CLEC network. For example, the LEC should not pay any kind of termination charges to the CLEC for calls that passed through the LEC""s network but did not actually originate from the LEC""s network, for example inter-LATA calls coming in through an IXC network not directly connected to the CLEC network. Currently, the CLEC accumulates records for calls terminated in the CLEC""s network that passed through the LEC""s network, without distinguishing point of origin. The LEC must trust the CLEC to bill for however many calls were terminated to them. Clearly, there is a need for a system that enables the LEC to accurately determine what calls routed through the LEC tandem really came from another network or provider.
Also, certain practices of the CLECs in developing their business actually are contrary to the theory of reciprocal compensation under the Act. As noted, the compensation theory was based on an expectation that the CLEC customers would originate about as many calls out of the CLEC network as they receive incoming calls. At least some of the CLECs, however, have heavily marketed their network services to customers having only incoming calls. In such cases, the CLECs are actually turning the reciprocal compensation system into a major added profit center, contrary to the intent of the Telecom Act.
One example of this incoming call business that is particularly troublesome relates to CLEC service to large numbers of access lines for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) Many CLECs have established business plans, which target ISPs as their primary customers. These CLECs have designed their networks to deliver locally dialed LEC customer traffic to an ISP. Such a call originates from a LEC""s local customer, and the call terminates on a CLEC owned NXX to the ISP. The CLEC provides the ISP with low or no cost access to the LEC""s customers and receives compensation from the LEC for every minute of internet traffic originated from customer on the LEC switches.
This type of service is exploding. Internet access service places huge traffic demands on the LEC""s network. Also, the pattern of such traffic, with calls to a limited number of destinations and long average hold times, tends to exacerbate congestion problems. The termination of the calls to an ISP actually provides the caller with access to an international network. As such, the termination is not really to a local customer of the CLEC. The LECs argue that these calls should not be subject to reciprocal compensation because they are not intra-LATA calls, under the definition of the Telecom Act. A call bound for the Internet should be an inter-LATA call. Currently, there is no way to identify and quantify such calls from a LEC network to an ISP subscribing to telephone service through a CLEC.
The CLEC""s ISP service strategy distorts the balance of reciprocal compensation payments between the two local carriers in the CLEC""s favor. The result of this market trend is an increase in the interconnection expenses as the number of CLECs who have identified this interconnection model as their primary business continues to grow and as those already operating under this model migrate into more and more territories served by incumbant LECs.
For the reasons outlined above, a need exists for an effective technique to measure traffic passing between two networks, such as the networks of a LEC and a CLEC, and analyze the patterns of such traffic. A more specific need is for a technique to measure traffic, identify traffic patterns and determine therefrom what traffic should and should not be subject to reciprocal compensation between the two carriers. A need also exists for a technique to identify problems of traffic congestion relating to interconnection of LEC and CLEC networks. Another need exists to provide a tool for analysis of the patterns of the traffic across the interface between the networks, for example, to show how the patterns do or do not conform to the regulatory model forming the basis for the fee structures between these two parties.
A number of techniques have been developed for monitoring operations of the public switching telephone network. While these prior techniques may be effective for some purposes, they have not proven effective for analyzing interconnect traffic, particularly to and from a CLEC. To complete the understanding of the background of the invention, it may be helpful to briefly consider some of the prior techniques for network monitoring.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,475,732 Pester describes an SS7 Network Preventative Maintenance System for detecting potential SS7 and switched network troubles, automatically analyzing the troubles, and providing alarm and corrective action to avoid major network events. The Pester SS7 Real Time Monitor System described in that Patent is a multi-stage SS7 network preventative maintenance tool that traps SS7 messages, detects potential SS7 and switched network troubles, automatically analyzes those troubles, and provides alarm and corrective action instructions to maintenance personnel.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,592,530 to Brockman et al. relates to an SS7 monitoring system for evaluating the operations of telephone switches by capturing data between signaling nodes of a telephone switching system. The Brockman et al. surveillance equipment captures signaling information from different signaling network paths within a mated pair of signaling transfer points (STPs) pair and correlates the fragmented messages for each monitored call. The system is capable of generating call detail records from the SS7 messages of a mated pair cluster, for use in billing and fraud detection.
While the above discussed Pester and Brockman et al. Patents describe the usefulness of monitoring an SS7 common channel interoffice signaling network for event detection, neither of these patents is directed to the particular problems of traffic measurement addressed by the present invention. The Pester Patent places emphasis on monitoring of the SS7 network itself in order to detect troubles in its functioning. The Brockman et al. Patent focuses on monitoring of all links to the STPs in a pair and the assembly of related SS7 signaling messages to form a record of call completions.
While these methodologies may be effective for their stated purposes there remains a distinct need for an efficient and effective tool for monitoring and analyzing the traffic passing between networks of different carriers, specifically between the networks of LECs and CLECs. Attempts to use other more traditional approaches, such as the accumulation of data from the switches themselves and the Engineering and Administrative Data Acquisition System fell short of providing the desired information.
For example, today, a LEC conducts studies on usage in an office by setting up a xe2x80x9cbusy studyxe2x80x9d with respect to specific individual lines served through that office. It is not possible to look at all the traffic in the office at one time.
It is accordingly an object of this invention to provide a relatively low cost solution to the problems outlined above.
It is another object of the invention to provide a timely, powerful, cost effective means of analyzing traffic on the Public Switching Telephone Network (PSTN), to accurately quantify interconnect traffic between the networks of different carriers.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a flexible, expedient, accurate, and cost-effective method to identify and analyze congestion and related traffic problems for such interconnect traffic.
It is another object of the invention to measure and quantify interconnect traffic in such a manner as to facilitate accurate compensation and accounting between the carriers.
It is yet another object of the invention to implement Internet related traffic studies and enable analysis of Internet traffic to CLEC customers.
The invention addresses the above stated needs by providing effective techniques for tracking traffic through a telecommunication network in such a manner as to enable analysis of interconnect traffic between two carriers"" networks. Aspects of the invention encompass both methods and systems for accumulating the necessary call data from monitoring of the network and analysis of the call data with regard to the interconnect traffic.
The call records are developed from monitoring or compiling of items of information from certain management data messages used by the carriers"" networks. Management data here refers to information generated by the telecommunication network for its operations purposes, for example, interoffice signaling messages generated to control call set-up and tear-down. Another example of such data would be messages sent from central offices of the network to an accounting office, for record keeping and billing purposes.
Thus, a first aspect of the invention relates to a method of analyzing interconnect traffic between two carriers"" networks. The method involves capturing management data messages communicated by a first carrier""s telecommunication network during processing of calls associated with a second carrier""s telecommunication network. From these messages, the method compiles detailed records of interconnect calls crossing an interface between the two carriers"" networks. The detailed records of interconnect calls are loaded into a table in a database for further processing. The processing forms data indicative of interconnect call traffic crossing the interface between the networks.
The processing of the call records enables one of the carriers to determine various significant characteristics of the interconnect traffic that crosses the interface during the period of the study. For example, the carrier can determine how much of the traffic is local traffic or how much of the traffic is inter-LATA traffic. For either type of traffic, the carrier can perform a common analysis of all such traffic or separately study traffic originating or terminating in the other carrier""s network.
The present invention enables such analysis of interconnect traffic between any two carriers"" networks. An area of principle interest, however, relates to interconnect traffic between a LEC and a CLEC of the public telephone network.
Thus, another aspect of the invention relates to a method of analyzing interconnect traffic between a local exchange carrier (LEC) and a competing local exchange carrier (CLEC). This method involves trapping signaling messages exchanged between a telephone network of the LEC and a telephone network of the CLEC, during processing of calls associated with the CLEC network by the LEC network. The trapped signaling messages are processed to form call detail records for calls associated with the CLEC telephone network that have been processed by the LEC telephone network. The method involves processing of the call detail records, to form aggregate data regarding the interconnect traffic between the LEC and CLEC telephone networks.
In an actual network, all calls between two carrier""s network are interoffice calls. The preferred embodiments of the present invention utilize real time monitors on selected common channel interoffice signaling links to collect messages relating to set-up and tear-down of interconnect calls. A site processor compiles data from the interoffice signaling messages relating to individual calls, to form call detail records (CDRs) for interconnect call attempts. The site processor uploads the CDRs to a central server. The server maintains a relational database for the CDRs derived from the signaling data.
Data from the relational database is processed or xe2x80x98preparedxe2x80x99 and uploaded to a multi-dimensional database. The data preparation includes supplementing the records with reference data and where necessary spreading or xe2x80x9cbinningxe2x80x9d usage data to multiple tracking intervals. The multi-dimensional database provides on-line analytical processing tools for enhanced processing of the call data and offers an efficient graphical user interface, preferably a web suite type interface. Applications running in the multi-dimensional database enable analysis and presentation of study results.
Some applications calculate jurisdictional calling factors such as various percentages based on the interconnect traffic, for example the percentage that relates to local traffic or the percentage that relates to inter-LATA traffic. Another application is an ISP finder application, for identifying destiantion numbers having a large volume of incoming calls and calls having a long average hold time. With the ISP destination numbers known, another application determines the percentage of terminating interconnect traffic that relates to Internet access calls.
Additional objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows, and in part will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the following or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and attained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.